Monday, July 30, 2012

As of July 26th, Jackson is 2 months old! He is such a sweet baby and we love him to pieces. We are enjoying cuddling and snuggling him since we know the time will soon come when he is all over the place!

His 2 month appointment lasted an hour and a half and was pretty much the worst appointment I've been to! I took all 3 kids since my girls love the pediatrician (and my mom was out of town), but for some reason we had to wait SO LONG! And we were the first appointment of the day, so I wasn't quite sure what the hold up was. Anyway, we got through it and here are his stats.

He is long and lean as the dr. put it! Isn't this funny considering he came out 8 lbs??!

I show you this picture of him so you can see that the close up pics are a bit deceiving! He looks like he has chubby cheeks, but they aren't as chubby as my girl's were!

The girls still love their brother. Molly wanted a picture with her brother. Ali is hilarious and has this raspy low voice when she talks to the baby. And she loves to call him "baby boos". So funny! She has started to add "boos" onto everyone's name: Daddy boos, Mommy boos, grandpa boos, etc. So silly!!

I finally finished this clutch to use for the baby. I started it before Jackson was born, and then it sat for weeks once he was here. I pulled it back out after buying some of the snaps about a week or two ago. This fabric is left over from the quilt my mom made Jackson. The quilt turned out ADORABLE!! It's all finished, I just need to take some pictures of it and then I will post them!

This is the outside. You can't really tell since I didn't do a close up, but I quilted along the chevron lines. It was easy and I didn't have to draw any new lines!

Stuff it with a few diapers and some wipes.

And you are all set to go! I just grab it from my bag when I need to change him when we are out and about and I don't have to search through my whole bag for a diaper or the wipes. Perfect! This pattern is from "All My Bags" I think!

So glad he's done!! Last week Justin took the Utah State Bar. This is the biggest test for any attorney. You must pass it in order to practice law in any state. Part of the test is for national laws and the other part is for the state. Tuesday he wrote all of the essays and Wednesday was all multiple choice. He said it was the hardest test he's ever taken and the most grueling.

The firm he is working with gave him 2 weeks paid time off to study and that's exactly what he did. We didn't see him much those 2 1/2 weeks. The girls and I made him a candy poster on Wednesday and we finished it right before he walked in the door. It was a fun surprise I think. He is so glad to be done and is "cautiously optimistic," in his words. His results come in 8 to 10 weeks, so it's a very long wait. It's pretty much a pass/fail test and employers only want to know that you passed, not what score you got. Utah has a pretty high passage rate, I think 85%.

Here's a close up of the poster. It reads:
Dear Justin,
While you didn't start out an AIRHEAD, it has been a ROCKY ROAD to becoming a SMART(IES) attorney! We are (MILKY) WAY proud of you and to us you are a STAR(BURST)! We know one day you'll even clear ONE HUNDRED GRAND. You bring us so much (ALMOND) JOY! Love, the family.

We are so glad it's over and are obviously hoping for the best! Great job Justin!! We love you!

Here is my happy boy! He has been smiling since about 4 1/2 weeks. I know that sounds early, but I really think they were genuine then and he does it more and more now. Isn't it the best? Now we can't wait for that adorable giggle to come out.

He has a bit of red in his hair in certain light. Justin said his dad actually had red hair when he was a little boy.

He is always so smiley right after he eats (no surprise there!). We love his smiles!!

Lately I've been in an organizing mood. The girls' room has been such a mess and they seem to have so much stuff, so I went through everything and organized. It looked so great I had to take pictures. Too bad I can't show you before pictures. It looked like a tornado. I'm sure you can imagine.

If I haven't said so, we turned Ali's crib into a toddler bed, which you can see here on the right. She has done pretty well in it, except the girls had a streak where they both came up after they had been put down several times and that drives us nuts!

We have to "board up" the fireplace because it wasn't insulated very well at all. In the winter it is so cold in their room because of the cool air getting through. And no, the girls can't play foosball yet!

I know this doesn't look that great, but on the back wall is the mattress and box springs that go in the room Justin and I are in. It's a queen size but we wanted to use our king. So it is in "storage" here as well as the pad on top.

All of this furniture and the quilt belong to my mom, but there isn't enough room upstairs anywhere for it, so the girls play with it downstairs.

I also went through all of our boxes in the storage room and pulled everything out and reorganized it; meaning all of the girls clothes. It took me a couple of days (if I wasn't nursing I'm sure it could have gone faster) but I feel really good about it. They are boxed in empty/used diapers and wipes boxes. Man, I think about all of the money we've spent on diapers and wipes and it's a lot by looking at all those boxes!!

I'm playing catch up here! We fixed the computer so I can get into my photos again. Yay!! And it was super simple. Of course! But hey, we didn't have to pay anything so that's good!

Every year our primary does a parade for all the kids around the 24th of July. They decorate their bikes, then ride down the street and the neighbors watch and we have a dinner after.

Since we have a small primary, people often invite their grandkids to come. It was a lot of fun this year and Emily and Natalie and their kids came too!

Jackson pretty much slept in the baby bjorn the whole time! We had a yummy potluck dinner after. Molly was a champ riding her bike around. Everyone was making comments on how fast she was. Ali wasn't so great, so after a while we had her walk :)

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Justin sold his laptop to his brother while we were in Star Valley a few weeks ago, so we now have one laptop (the one I have been using). He transferred all of his things over to this computer, but he had a different operating system on his. So I tried to open iPhoto last week and it told me I needed the latest version of iPhoto. Well long story short, we need to buy a new operating system and version of iPhoto, so I can't access my photos! Ahh!! I guess this is a lesson in saving your pictures in more than one place. Of course I know this, I just haven't done anything about backing them up anywhere. Once I can get back in, I will back everything up!

Justin has been studying for the bar every day. He takes it next Tuesday and Wednesday and then it's over!! His work has given him 2 weeks paid time off to study, which is very generous. My sister had a genius idea for him to study at the church. He already has keys to it because of his calling and it's quiet and air conditioned. Perfect! I can't wait til it's over (and obviously neither can he!) so I can ask him for a bit more help!

Molly tripped on the driveway this week and has a big boo boo on her nose that everyone asks about. We had a primary parade Wednesday night where the kids decorated their bikes and rode down the street and back. Afterwards we had a potluck dinner that was really yummy. It was fun to see neighbors and friends! I have pictures to share later.

The other night Ali came upstairs after we put her to bed about 5 times because she was honestly afraid of lions! She is obsessed with Dora and usually asks about foxes (as in Swiper the fox) every night when we put her to bed, but it was lions the other night and she was in tears. I think she finally went to bed at about 9:30 along with Molly (who so kindly walked upstairs with Ali each and every time). Needless to say, they slept in until about 9:30 am!

I got news that Molly was accepted into Headstart preschool again for the fall! She was put in my first choice: morning preschool at a different elementary, which happens to be closer to us. Yay! I think it goes from 8:15 to 11:30 am. Yikes! This is early for me to have her up and ready, but they serve them breakfast there (thank goodness!) and I already have a plan. I'm going to have Justin take her on his way to work and then I will pick her up. I'm really hoping it works! This will give Justin an extra excuse to leave and be on time and will definitely help my cause! I also want to put Molly in the afternoon singing and dance class which is when her friend goes. I'm hoping we can carpool to and from as well.

Last night we went to Provo and ate at La Jolla Groves. It is a really yummy place and has lemon trees above your heads. The ambiance is really neat! Justin's youngest brother Brad works there and he was able to eat with us, along with Emily and Zack and my parents. After we had ice cream at the creamery (yummy raspberry cream cheese ice cream, peanut butter trails and english toffee I miss you!) and we stopped by Krispy Kreme for some doughnuts we ate this morning. I know, all you are hearing are calories!! But it has all been yummy!

I'm hoping to get back into some type of working out when Justin is finished with the bar. More and more pants are finally fitting again, but some I have purposely stayed away from because I know I'm not there yet! Sorry about this being a rambling type post!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Jackson is now 7 weeks! Time seems slow and yet fast. He continues to be a sweet boy and when he's awake he shares the greatest smiles with us! We are absolutely loving that.

The girls continue to be great with him and only want to be nice to him and give him kisses. It is more difficult getting things done, but that's to be expected. It's hard to try to go run an errand with 3 kids versus 2, but we are adjusting and making things work!

Nursing is going better. I am still frustrated that he is still so sleepy while eating, but I know that that will go away with time as he gets older and is more awake. I don't have pain like I had when he had thrush, but I still have blisters that won't go away. I am using a prescription for them, and luckily it doesn't hurt as long as he doesn't latch onto them. I don't feel like I have the milk supply I need for him to be satisfied, so I supplement with formula from time to time. I've tried everything to increase it, but I just don't think my body wants to respond, although literally I think I've done about 10 things to try to increase it (and please, I really don't need any suggestions! I've talked to lactation consultants, friends, the pediatrician, pumping, used supplements, you name it!). In my head I'm trying to get to 8 weeks because supposedly that's when nursing gets better and when baby starts to be more awake for feedings. We'll see! We are quickly approaching that day!

He is still an excellent sleeper! Last night was unusual when he only had about a 4 hour stretch. A couple of night ago I fed him at 10:30 pm and he slept until 6:30 am! This is the longest he's gone, but he usually eats between 10 and 11 pm and then will sleep til around 4:30 or 5 am. And then he will sleep until 7:30 or 8 am. It is lovely! He's been doing this since around week 3.

I caught this cute moment a day or two ago.

He definitely knows his mommy and daddy's voices. He turns his head to follow us and we love it. And he has giant smiles for us. He still has all of his hair and we hope he keeps it! He still wants to be held all the time and if we lay him down, it seems like a lot of the time he will wake up about 5 minutes later! Little stinker! He is definitely more cuddly than our girls ever were. Our girls would hardly ever fall asleep while we were holding them, even pretty early on, but Jackson only wants to sleep while being held. We sure love our cuddly little guy.

On a different note, I went with my mom and the girls and we saw the movie Brave today! It was nice to go out and do something normal without the baby. The movie was a bit scary for the girls, but they liked it. Well at least Molly did. Ali fell asleep for half of it on my lap! I couldn't believe she could sleep through some of the really loud scenes since she's such a light sleeper, but she did! It was a cute show, though not my favorite from Disney. If you have little kids, you may want to see it first since there are bears in the show that are pretty scary for little ones. Molly went and sat on grandma's lap because she was scared at one point.

Monday, July 9, 2012

We blessed Jackson last Sunday, July 1st, in Justin's parent's ward. We were lucky to have almost everybody attend from both of our families. Here is my family.

Justin's family

We are now 5!

Sweet baby shoes.

A close up of his outfit.

A little smile.

It was a very nice day and Justin gave him a beautiful blessing. Thanks to all of our family members for making the day so special, especially Val and Shelley for having my whole family at their house in addition to their own family!